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S On 
British Forestry: Its Present Position and Out- 
look after the War. By E. P. Stebbing. Pp. 
xxv+257. (London: John Murray, 1916.) 
Price 6s. net. 
"Tes book, by the Lecturer in Forestry at 
Edinburgh University, is a study of the 
various problems which are involved in making 
provision for adequate supplies of timber after the 
war. In time of peace we were dependent on 
foreign countries for the great bulk of the timber, 
paper pulp, and other forest products which we 
consumed, the annual import into the United 
Kingdom being valued at no less than 43,000,000. 
in 1913. During the war, owing to cessation of 
exports from the Baltic and lack of shipping 
generally, our supplies of timber have been much 
curtailed, although our need is now greater than 
ever. The trenches, railways, and other mili- 
tary works at the front have used up vast quan- 
tities of timber; while our collieries and mines 
have not abated their demand for pitwood. We 
have been forced to draw largely on our own 
woodlands, which are rapidly being felled under 
the auspices of the Home-grown Timber Com- 
mittee, appointed by Government some months 
ago. The preservation and restoration of the 
existing woodland area call for immediate con- 
sideration. — 
Mr. Stebbing’s remedy, which is developed in 
some fifty pages, is a national planting scheme 
to be taken in hand immediately. The recom- 
mendations of the various Government Commit- 
tees and Commissions on Forestry since 1887 are 
shown to have had little effect. “With regard to 
the existing woodland area, Mr. Stebbing 
demands that “all woods purchased and felled by 
Government at the present high rates should be 
at once replanted by the owner, as a condition of 
the contract.” His planting scheme includes, in 
addition to the renovation of the woods that are 
now being denuded, the planting of 5,000,000 
acres of wasteland, the whole to be carried out in 
thirty-two years, roughly equivalent to the taking 
in hand yearly of about 200,000 acres. A plant- 
ing plan should be drawn up, county by county, 
under which the felled-over areas, the woods con- 
sisting mainly of. useless scrub, and the most 
accessible of the wastelands would be selected 
and the order of planting laid down. The land 
might be acquired in many cases by lease or pur- 
chase. In other cases the Government, going 
into partnership’ with the landowner, might pro- 
vide the money for planting and fencing up to a 
prescribed sum per acre. Compulsory powers to 
purchase wasteland, and enforced management of 
privately owned woods, according to plans 
approved by a State Forestry Board, though 
necessary if great progress in forestry is aimed at, 
are not distinctly advocated in this book. 
NO. 2450, VOL. 98] 
® oct 30iVAY 
URE 
The question of labour is discussed at length, 
two chapters being devoted to the employment of 
women, whose services might be useful in forest 
nurseries. At the end of the war partially dis- 
abled soldiers and sailors will be available, as well 
as a large number of ordinary labourers. The 
work could be commenced immediately by utilis- 
ing the expert woodmen from among our 
prisoners; and thousands of acres of our denuded 
woods could be replanted during the coming 
winter. 
Mr. Stebbing has made a special study of the 
timber trade and forests of Russia, Finland, and 
Siberia, and devotes a hundred pages to this sub- 
ject. The immense supplies of timber available 
in this vast territory are of great importance to 
the Allies, in view of the reconstruction necessary 
at the end of the war in the devastated districts 
of Belgium, France, Serbia, and Poland. Mr. 
Stebbing urges the British Government to lease 
large areas in the Crown forests of Russia, which 
we could work in the period following the war, 
and thus obtain what timber we require at a 
reasonable cost. This measure would seem to be 
of doubtful utility, as it is probable that all the 
accessible forests (those near rivers where timber 
can be felled profitably) are already taken up. 
105 
CHEMICAL WATER PURIFICATION. 
Water-Purification Plants and their Operation. 
By M. F. Stein. Pp. viii+258. (New York: 
J. Wiley and Sons, Inc.; London: Chapman 
and Hall, Ltd., 1915.) Price ros. 6d. net. 
mi fees volume is another addition to the already 
large number of books on water purification 
coming from the United States; and while, per- 
haps, the subject is not treated in quite such a 
scientific manner as in some of the others, there is 
a quantity of concise information useful to one 
who is in charge of a modern water-purification 
plant, and particularly of one where chemicals are 
used. 
To anyone acquainted with methods of water 
purification as usually practised in this country 
the book will show vividly the wide differences 
existing not merely between the problems that 
present themselves to water undertakers in Britain 
and America, but still more their different methods 
of dealing with them. In this country slow sand 
filtration, usually preceded by more or less lengthy 
storage, is the general rule, while in America the 
usual methods appear to be rapid mechanical filtra- 
tion after the addition of chemicals for coagulat- 
ing, sterilising, or softening purposes. This is 
probably due to the fact that to a large extent the 
water used in the United States is derived from 
the great rivers and lakes, and is often very turbid 
and sometimes highly polluted, whilst over here 
many of the large towns obtain their supplies from 
upland gathering grounds, where the water is 
impounded in large lakes or reservoirs away from 
any chance of serious pollution, and only a com- 
¢ G 
